Hi everyone - just picked up my '09 330d M Sport a couple of weeks ago and am looking for a bit of advice on traction control.

At low to moderate speeds I can accelerate pretty hard with no loss of traction (as I'd expect) but occasionally at m-way speed (60-80mph) on kick-down the traction control light flashes and the power is cut. The same thing has happened under only light acceleration (e.g. when resuming a cruise controlled speed). This has all been in dry conditions.

I know that the the N57 engine is very torquey but I wouldn't expect the car to break traction at these speeds and in a straight line, particularly under light throttle and in the dry.

Have any other 330d owners experienced this? Is it normal? If not, what could be the cause?

I've provisionally got the car booked in for investigation on Friday but I don't want to schlep over to the dealers if there's nothing wrong so any tips before then would be greatly appreciated!

If you're running on runflats (especially 19's) and the road is even slightly uneven then I wouldn't be surprised, my (in my opinion, underpowered) 325i would
Light the traction control light up and the common factor was throttle on uneven road surface, causing the wheels to skip rathe than break traction by means of overcoming grip through acceleration.

Traction will of course break. Many reasons for this to happen. On a dead straight road, in summer with new tyres there is no real reason to spin up. But different roads, and there condition, the amount of throttle the curvature of the road including vertical etc can have an effect on a car OBVIOUSLY. How decent are the tyres?

Ive had Traction break and I spun the rear wheels at 115mph with everything disabled. Back end kicked out a little, was fun!

At low to moderate speeds I can accelerate pretty hard with no loss of traction (as I'd expect) but occasionally at m-way speed (60-80mph) on kick-down the traction control light flashes and the power is cut. The same thing has happened under only light acceleration (e.g. when resuming a cruise controlled speed). This has all been in dry conditions.

I know that the the N57 engine is very torquey but I wouldn't expect the car to break traction at these speeds and in a straight line, particularly under light throttle and in the dry.

This doesn't sound normal to me. On my old '08 E92 330d the traction control only ever cut in at very low speed with full throttle applied, particularly on standing starts around a corner in wet conditions - never in the circumstances you describe.

I appreciate that skipping across an uneven surface can cause the TC to trigger but this is more like a continuous activation of the TC for as long as I'm applying the throttle - take foot off the pedal and then reply and it starts back up again.

The fact that the power is cut for the same duration seems to suggest to me that the TC thinks the wheels are spinning (whether they are or not).

From what some of you say, maybe there's nothing to worry about and it was just a few incidences of poor road conditions.

BTW - I'm running on 18's with Pilot Sport runflats, good amount of tread (7mm). Out of interest, would you recommend Bridgestone RE050's for the 330d? Found them to be good on my 120d.

Hi everyone - just picked up my '09 330d M Sport a couple of weeks ago and am looking for a bit of advice on traction control.

At low to moderate speeds I can accelerate pretty hard with no loss of traction (as I'd expect) but occasionally at m-way speed (60-80mph) on kick-down the traction control light flashes and the power is cut. The same thing has happened under only light acceleration (e.g. when resuming a cruise controlled speed). This has all been in dry conditions.

I know that the the N57 engine is very torquey but I wouldn't expect the car to break traction at these speeds and in a straight line, particularly under light throttle and in the dry.

Have any other 330d owners experienced this? Is it normal? If not, what could be the cause?

I've provisionally got the car booked in for investigation on Friday but I don't want to schlep over to the dealers if there's nothing wrong so any tips before then would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks!

I experienced this problem before on my 325d, however this was on an uneven dual carriageway in the winter on cold tyres in 4th gear.